


Emergency Contacts

by distantmuse



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Male Character, Divorce, Eating Disorders, Extramarital Affairs, F/M, Hate to Love, Hurt/Comfort, Loss, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Miscarriage, Moving On, Older Man/Younger Man, Opening Up, Pain, Past Relationship(s), Secrets, letting go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-27 05:57:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16212857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distantmuse/pseuds/distantmuse
Summary: This story focuses on the relationships of Natalie/Joe and Jason/Gavin during the dissolution of the Figueroa marriage. It begins when Natalie is in the emergency room, and Jason and Joe are put into an awkward situation together when they are both called as her emergency contacts. Fig/Caputo and Jason/Gavin with mentions of the history of Jason/Fig.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I originally started this as a one-shot, then I decided I wanted to develop it more and make half of it about Jason and Gavin (they pop up more in chapter 2). This is my first time writing M/M, so please be gentle. :)

Joe jogged to the nurse’s station at the local emergency room, stopping rest his hands on his knees and breathe heavily when he finally reached it. He’d been running – and driving – like a bat out of hell to get to the hospital.

When Joe looked up, he realized that someone he recognized, Jason Figueroa, had run in from the other direction and joined him.

What the hell was he doing there?

“I’m looking for Natalie Figueroa.” Joe announced to the first nurse he could get the attention of at the nurse’s station before Jason could speak. 

“I’m Jason Figueroa.” Jason drew out his last name dramatically. Joe wasn’t sure whether it was to point out that it was the same as Natalie’s or to try to draw the nurse’s attention to the fact that he was one of her state senators.

Either way, she didn’t look impressed.

“I’m her husband.” Jason was saying, at the same time that Joe said, “I’m her boyfriend.”

The nurse nodded slowly, her brow arched. “Oh… Oookay then. Well, apparently, you are both listed as her emergency contacts. They called both of you.”

“Is Natalie okay?” Joe asked, concerned.

“She passed out at work. We’re still running some tests, but we believe that she has pneumonia and that she fainted from dehydration. We’re giving her some fluids, and that should perk her up. Has she been sick lately?”

“I don’t know.” Jason said, while Joe said, “Yes.” They exchanged a less-than-friendly look that didn’t go unnoticed by the nurse.

“What kind of symptoms?”

“Cough for a while, a fever and chills sometimes the past couple of days… I told her not to go to work.”

Jason snorted. “Like she was going to listen to that.”

“That would be consistent with the pneumonia diagnosis. Any long-term health issues we should know about?”

Joe sighed. “She sort of… Goes back and forth between bulimia and anorexia.” Jason nodded his agreement.

The nurse jotted it down in her notes. “And how long has she struggled with those?”

Joe shrugged and reluctantly looked at Jason, who supplied the answer. “Since she was 16.” 

“Any other health history I should know?”

Jason thought for a moment. “She takes antidepressants. She also has no tonsils or adenoids, she is sometimes anemic, and she’s allergic to penicillin.”

Jason took a clipboard of paperwork from the nurse and scribbled down some more information about Natalie for her. He knew it was irrational, given the number of years that Jason and Natalie had been married, but Joe hated that Jason knew more about her than he did.

“I’m guessing you would be the one with the insurance card?” The nurse asked Jason, who nodded and fumbled around in his wallet looking for it.

“She’s my wife. Can I see her?”

“She’s your ‘wife’ because at a courthouse somewhere, there’s a piece of paper filed away that says that.” Joe argued. “You haven’t been her real husband in months, maybe years. She’s just your arm-piece, and I’m honestly surprised you could even leave your Gavin long enough to show up.”

The nurse’s eyebrows shot up. Jason clenched his hand into a fist while Joe almost laughed.

“Are you going to punch me?” Joe taunted him. 

“I’d like to, but I’m not sure if your nose can take another hit.”

“Do you really want battery on your record, Senator?”

“It might be worth it.” Jason growled.

The nurse raised her voice. “Have you both forgotten that you are here because Ms. Figueroa is ill enough to be in the emergency room?”

Both men turned toward the nurse, looking somewhat apologetic. Joe spoke first. “Can I see her?”

The nurse rubbed her head tiredly. “They’re in with her right now. After they finish a couple of other tests, how about I just tell her you’re both here, and she can decide what to do with you? Because I’m done. Either go kill each other outside where I don’t have to do the paperwork or go sit in the waiting room until I come and get you.”  
________________________________________

They chose the waiting room, where they sat across from each other in ten long minutes of silence before Jason finally spoke up.

“You don’t just forget fifteen years of marriage. You get that I still care about her, right?”

“So much that you were fucking your assistant behind her back?”

“She was fucking you behind mine.” Jason pointed out.

“After you neglected her and broke her heart while asking her to steal money for your campaign.”

“You don’t know the whole damn story.”

“Does she?” Joe challenged.

Jason paused. “No.”

“Figures.”

Jason exhaled slowly. “How do you tell your wife that you’ve realized that you’re bisexual, and that you’ve fallen more in love with another man than you are with her?”

Joe had no response to that, so he shrugged and waited to see if Jason would go on.

“I knew she’d figured it out.” Jason continued. “I didn’t want to have to look at her face and tell her. I didn’t want to hurt her worse than I already had.”

“So, you’re a chicken shit.” Joe scoffed. “She didn’t just ‘figure it out;’ she caught you kissing him at some cocktail party.”

“Fuck.” Jason sighed. “I didn’t know that.”

“Would it have mattered?”

“Trust me… It would have been so much easier to have stayed in love with my highly intelligent, sophisticated, charming wife than it has been to fall in love with my adorably nerdy 24-year-old male assistant who met me because he was my intern.”

“Why are you telling me any of this?” Joe threw up his hands. “You don’t owe me an explanation. You owe that to Natalie. You made her put up all of these walls.”

Jason held up one hand. “I won’t deny that I’ve hurt her and caused some of her walls, but I didn’t build all of them. It’s not my fault that her mother died of cancer when she was twelve, or that her father lost his fucking mind after that. She also had three miscarriages before we gave up trying to have kids for years. Working in that damn prison hardened her, too. She’s broken, but I’m _not_ the only one who broke her.”

Joe was quiet for a moment, not having known any of that about her history, other than the obvious work in the prison. “I’m feel like I’m constantly just trying to get to the real her.”

Jason sighed. “The ‘real her’ is always going to be a little broken.”

“I just wish she’d let me see the pieces.”

“It takes a long time with her.” Jason met Joe’s eyes. “But it’s worth it. She’s so much more than what she lets people believe. She’s not all ice-cold bitch.”

“I know. I’ve seen it in small glimpses.”

Jason absently twisted the golden band on his left ring finger. “When I was in law school, I went into a coffee shop before class one morning. Natalie was in front of me in line, and she wasn’t nearly as graceful in high heels then. She turned around and stumbled, so I caught her. She spilled her entire latte down the front of my shirt. My chest was burning, and my skin was probably blistering. It was so fucking painful. I can still remember how much it hurt. But I fell for her right then, and all I could think about was how I had to get the tall, beautiful, clumsy girl’s number.”

Jason paused, pulling the ring up and down his finger.

“When I married her two years later, it was the happiest day of my life. And there were a lot of happy years after that. They weren’t always easy, but they were pretty happy.” Jason sat back in his seat and locked eyes with Joe. “So, you see… I was in love with her once, too.”

Joe cleared his throat. “I never said I was in love with her.”

“But you are.” Jason raked a hand through his graying hair. “I think she’s in love with you, too.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t really see her much. She shacks up with you, and I stay at Gavin’s place, and a brand new $600,000 house sits empty. But when I do see her, I noticed that she smiles a little more. Her eyes are a little happier. And…” Jason hesitated.

“And what?”

Jason turned his head to face Joe. “Nat asked me for a divorce a few weeks ago.”

“She did?” Joe’s eyebrows raised.

“Our attorneys are hashing out the details.” Jason looked down at his phone as it buzzed and lit up in his hand. “I’ll be right back.”  
Jason answered his phone only a few feet away, and Joe could hear enough of his conversation to figure out quickly that he was speaking to Gavin.

_“Natalie has pneumonia, but she’ll be okay… No, I haven’t seen her yet. Hopefully in a few… Yeah, I think I’ll be home for dinner... There are chicken breasts marinating in the fridge if you want to use those… Did that package from Amazon come today? Okay… I miss you… I love you too.”_

It struck Joe that it sounded like such a normal couple conversation, not like two men who had conspired to ruin Natalie’s life. They’d each just fallen for a   
completely unexpected person.

And that was something Joe could fully relate to.

When Jason returned, the nurse they had been speaking to approached them. “They’re finished with the tests.”

“Can…” Jason glanced at Joe. “One of us see her?”

The nurse rolled her eyes skyward. “Lord help me; I don’t know why. But she wants to see both of you. Together.”  
________________________________________

When they got inside Natalie’s room, Jason approached her first while Joe hung back by the door. Natalie was slightly pale, with a nasal cannula providing her with oxygen and an IV running up to a clear bag of fluids they were using to re-hydrate her.

“Hey, Nat.” Jason patted her lightly on the leg, then settled in a chair next to her bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse.” Natalie’s voice was raspy from the congestion in her lungs. “Hitting the floor at work is fucking embarrassing. My pride is probably worse off than anything else."

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Jason cleared his throat. “The nurse said you wanted to see both of us.”

“First, I wanted to see if you were actually here, because it was so unlikely that I figured I was hallucinating when the nurse said that.” Natalie directed her statement to Jason.

Joe felt a stab of something that felt like jealousy in his chest. He knew it was ridiculous; Jason had made his feelings clear, and Natalie had asked for a divorce, but there had been a bond between them that Joe felt like he couldn’t match. He couldn’t even get Natalie to lower many of the guards that she had up.

“I also wanted to make sure no one was bleeding. She said you were bickering and bordering on a fist fight.” Natalie continued warily.

Jason looked back at Joe. “Well… I don’t think it would have gone that far.”

Natalie followed his gaze the door, where Joe was still awkwardly standing. “Are you coming in, or are you holding up that door?”

Joe walked to the opposite side of the bed as Jason, sitting in a chair there. He was surprised to see Natalie holding her hand out toward him, wiggling her fingers   
at him slightly. Jason watched as Joe laid his hand over Natalie’s, curling it around her fingers.

“I should be going.” With his eyes still on their hands, Jason slowly stood. “You’ve got this?”

There was weight to his quiet words. Natalie was oblivious to it, but Joe wasn’t. Jason wasn’t only talking about that day there in the hospital. He was asking if Joe was going to take care of the woman that Jason had promised (and failed) to love and to cherish, until death to them part. Jason was asking if Joe, despite her flaws and the past that had shaped her into a hard and no-nonsense woman, would continue to try to reach her.

If he wouldn’t hurt her the way that Jason had.

“Yeah.” Joe squeezed Natalie’s hand. “I do.”


	2. Chapter 2

“How’s she doing?”

“Better. They’re going to keep her overnight and see how she is tomorrow.”

Jason moved behind Gavin, who was chopping red bell peppers on a wooden cutting board. He wrapped his arms around Gavin’s torso from behind and kissed the side of his neck gently. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Gavin leaned his head back against Jason for a moment before continuing to cut the vegetables. “Your lawyer called.”

“Oh?”

“He has the paperwork drawn up and is almost ready to meet with Natalie’s attorney. He needs a few more documents from you.” Gavin scooted a group of diced peppers over on his cutting board and placed an onion on it.

Jason was quiet for a moment. “That was... Fast.”

Gavin paused his chopping; he couldn’t quite pinpoint the tone in Jason’s voice. It almost sounded like disappointment or even regret. “Were you wanting to drag out what should have happened a long time ago?”

Jason dropped his hands from Gavin’s body. “No, but...”

“Because it sounds like you’re upset that the divorce is moving along.”

“What? No. I just never expected her to be the one to file for it.” Jason said. He moved to lean his back against the counter next to Gavin where he could face him. “I always thought it’d be me, and it feels... Weird.”

“I see.” Gavin said, not looking up.

“We are talking about dissolving the last fifteen years of my life. Natalie and I have been through a lot together. Don’t you think that it’s difficult to call it the end?”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “It’s been the end. You’ve been living separately for months.”

“That’s not the point.” Jason rubbed a hand over his face.

Gavin wouldn’t understand, and how could he? He was only twenty-four years old. He’d come out at thirteen, and he’d had only one serious relationship before Jason. Gavin had been in elementary school when Jason and Natalie were married. Even if they were no longer a real couple, the history between them couldn’t be erased.

“I respect the hell out of her. She could have filed for divorce as adultery and ruined me, but she filed it as no-fault.” Jason pointed out.

“Ruined you.” Gavin echoed, hurt, shaking his head. “So that’s what you think of us.” 

“Gavin, that’s not what I meant.” Jason reached for Gavin’s hand, but he refused to give it to him.

“Are you still in love with her?”

“No.” Jason said firmly. “I’m in love with you.”

“But you still love her.”

“There’s a big difference between the two. You knew going into this that I had a wife, a marriage, a past.”

“Natalie’s like a doll that you don’t want to let go of.” Gavin argued. “You’re still putting her in cocktail dresses and fancy updos and Louboutins, parading her around events while you keep me in the shadows.”

“You know it’s the act we have to put on.” Jason sighed. “If my constituents find out that I have a boyfriend, they’ll think I lied about everything.”

Gavin whacked the onion a little harder than was necessary with his knife. “Didn’t you?”  
________________________________________

Something cool and moist being plopped on her head roused Natalie from her nap in Joe’s bed the following afternoon.

Natalie opened her eyes and rolled up to look at the wet washcloth on her forehead. “Seriously?”

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Joe said apologetically.

“Then why would you throw a wet washcloth on my head?” Natalie tossed the washcloth to the nightstand.

“Your forehead felt warm, and you were thrashing around in your sleep. I was worried. I thought you had a fever again.”

Natalie arched a brow. “Have you just been watching me sleep?”

“You’re making it sound creepier than it is.”

Natalie began to respond, but Joe took advantage of Natalie’s open mouth to shove the metal tip of a thermometer under her tongue. Natalie sighed in exasperation, but closed her mouth around it and allowed it to take her temperature.

The thermometer beeped and Joe pulled it out of her mouth. “100.5. I’m going to get you some Tylenol.” 

“Is any of this really necessary?” Natalie sighed.

“Would you rather go back to the ER?”

“Fine.” Natalie relented.

He returned with a tray that held a bottle of Tylenol, a bottle of water, and a bowl of soup. Joe set the tray on the nightstand and sat down beside her on the bed. 

Natalie shook her head as she sat up in the bed. “You don’t need to do all of this.”

“I know you’re not used to being taken care of, but you are sick. I want to do this, so would you just let me?” Joe fumbled with the bottle of Tylenol.

“Three.” Natalie supplied.

“It says two on the bottle.” Joe said, scrutinizing the label.

Natalie rolled her eyes and accepted the Tylenol from Joe, downing it with a sip of water from the bottle. When she’d finished, he moved the tray with the bowl of soup on it to her lap, then crawled next to her on the bed, sitting beside her on top of the covers.

“It smells good.”

“It’s Nonna Caputo’s recipe.”

“An Italian lady had a chicken soup recipe?”

“Hey, Italian people get sick, too.”

Natalie laughed a little as she tasted it. “It reminds me of boarding school.”

“I didn’t know you went to boarding school.”

“Yeah, sophomore through senior years.” Natalie stared down at her bowl, swirling her spoon around in it to avoid Joe’s eyes. “After my mother died, my father kind of… Lost it. He ended up institutionalized, and my grandparents were too old to deal with a teenager, so they shipped me off to Connecticut.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“It wasn’t too bad. I had lots of friends. There was good chicken soup.” Natalie looked at him and smiled a little. “It was never lonely, which was probably good because I’m not sure what… Decisions I would have made if I hadn’t constantly been surrounded by people. I was… Safe. My father had these psychotic episodes and…” 

Natalie suddenly stopped talking.

Joe placed a gentle hand on her leg. “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

“He’s been in and out of mental hospitals since. Last I heard, he was in.”

“Do you ever see him?” Joe hesitated before asking.

“Rarely.” Natalie ate a couple of bites of the soup. “And then only out of guilt and obligation.”

“I know it’s not easy for you to talk about things.” Joe said quietly, brushing a piece of hair away from her face. “So, it means a lot that you feel comfortable enough with me to tell me that.”

Natalie cleared her throat. “The soup is really good, though.”

“Some other time, I’ll make you her Italian Wedding Soup.”

“Speaking of wedding…” Natalie looked down. ‘I assume Jason told you that I filed for divorce?”

Joe nodded slowly. “He did. I was a little surprised.”

“It was past time.” Natalie paused. “Is it weird that one reason I stayed married to him this long is that I didn’t want to ‘divorce’ his family? They’re this crazy Mexican-American bunch. Huge family, tons of nieces and nephews. I liked that. I never had that until I married him.” 

“I think that sounds pretty normal.”

“It’s time for both of us to move on.”

Joe looked at her almost shyly. “Do you want to move on with me?”

Natalie laced her fingers through Joe’s and smiled at him. “I thought I already had.”   
________________________________________

The next morning, Gavin reluctantly followed Jason into the huge house in picturesque suburbia that was purchased after Jason won the senate race. They rarely went there because Gavin always felt awkward in the house that Jason shared with Natalie, even though “shared” was a relative term; they could probably count the number of nights they’d spent there together on their fingers.

“I need to get some clothes. If you want to look for those documents for the lawyer, they’re probably in my second or third desk drawer.” Jason called over his shoulder as he headed upstairs.

Gavin walked through the glass door that led to Jason’s office and crossed the room to the giant cherry desk in the middle of the room. He rifled through the second drawer, not seeing anything that Jason needed, and he moved to the third drawer. Gavin moved a few papers out of the way until he uncovered something that made his hand freeze and hover over it in shock.


	3. Chapter 3

Gavin slowly picked up the small ultrasound photo from Jason's desk drawer. He inhaled sharply as he looked at it, wondering what Jason had been hiding from him.

"Hey." Jason popped his head into his office, his arm laden with the dress shirts folded over it. "Did you find the documents?"

Gavin turned to face him, the ultrasound still in his hands. "Is Natalie…"

Jason's brow turned confused. When he realized what Gavin was holding, his expression became pained, and he pressed his lips together in a tight line. He stood motionless in the doorway while Gavin patiently waited for an answer.

"No." Jason took a deep breath. "Look at the date."

Gavin squinted at the small print on the grainy image to find it was dated about five years prior. He frowned slightly. "I didn't realize there was a… Baby."

"There were three, actually. That was the last one and the only one she made it to an ultrasound with, but it was gone too a week after this. We thought we were safe with that one, but…" Jason sat down on the edge of his desk.

Gavin held the ultrasound picture out to Jason and he took it. He looked at it solemnly. No matter how many times he saw it, he felt the pain wash back over him again whenever he looked at it.

"She could get pregnant, but she couldn't stay pregnant."

_Jason laid on his side next to Natalie on their bed. He sighed as he brushed his fingers against her tear-stained cheek. Rather than looking at him, she seemed to stare through him._

_"Are you in any pain?" Jason asked, referring to the D &C procedure that Natalie had undergone earlier that week._

_"Not physically."_

_"You haven't gotten out of bed in days." Jason murmured, running his fingertips up and down her arm. "You haven't eaten anything. You're going to make yourself sick."_

_"I don't care. What does it matter anyway?"_

_"Nat…"_

_"I wish I understood why this keeps happening." Natalie whispered, allowing tears to flow freely down her face without bothering to wipe them away._

_"Me too."_

_"Do you know what it's like for your body to fail you over and over again? It's supposed to be made for this. And I can't…" Natalie couldn't continue speaking for her crying._

_"We have to stop trying for a while." Jason said softly, tangling his hand in a piece of Natalie's messy hair. "I can't take seeing you this way."_

_"I want a baby so much." Natalie choked back another sob._

_"I know you do." Jason sighed, toying with her chunk of curls that he held in his hand. "I want it, too._

_Natalie turned away from him. She her arms wrapped around her stomach, which would never be anything but flat, as she sobbed._

Gavin placed a hand over Jason's. "I'm sorry."

"I didn't think she would ever stop crying that time." Jason shook his head as though to clear it, then tucked the photo back into his desk drawer. He'd never let himself cry about it, trying to be strong for Natalie instead of making her feel worse and even more guilty for losing her pregnancies.

"Do you still want to be a father?"

Jason hesitated. "I don't know. It just doesn't seem like it's in the cards for me."

Gavin silently pulled Jason to him by his waist and embraced him tightly. Jason rested his head on Gavin's shoulder while Gavin rubbed his back with long, gentle strokes. They stood that way for a long time before Jason finally lost the battle against the tears in his eyes and allowed himself to release five years of pain into Gavin's shoulder.

\-----------------------------

Natalie was feeling much better a couple of days after her ER visit, well enough to lie down on Joe's couch with her long legs resting comfortably in his lap while they binged on old shows on Netflix.

"I have to say that I never thought I'd be on your couch watching Frasier with you on a Sunday afternoon."

"That makes two of us." Joe agreed. "I used to think you were actually Satan's incarnate."

"I still might be." Natalie smirked. "But you fell for me anyway."

"I didn't fall for you. You fuckin' tripped me." Joe bent her knee and lowered his lips to kiss it.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "You are such a nerd."

She started to say something else, but she was interrupted by the buzzing of her cell phone on the coffee table. The number wasn't one she recognized, and she furrowed her brow as she answered it.

"Hello? Yes, this is she. Oh. Uh. Hold on." Natalie quickly stood up from the couch and walked into Joe's kitchen with her phone.

Joe stretched on the couch and yawned. It was probably a work call; there'd been several since she'd been forced to take a couple of days off with the pneumonia. He did find it a little odd that she'd left the room.

Natalie was gone for several minutes. Joe watched with concern as she returned to the living room silently. She grasped the door frame as though to steady herself. Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath. The expression on her face was unreadable; it was then that he noticed how pale her face was. Was she getting sicker again?

Joe stood from the couch and quickly approached her. He caught her free hand in his while her other remained on the door frame.

"Nat? What is it?"

Natalie opened her eyes and locked them with Joe's.

"My father committed suicide this morning."


End file.
